After passing through the Arizona Senate Judiciary Committee,
a bill proposing to allow for the involuntary commitment of meth amphetamine
using pregnant women will now move to full Senate voting.

Sponsored by Sen. Pamela Gorman, the bill calls for State
Child Protective Service case-workers to intervene with enforced treatment when
a pregnant woman who is using meth, or even believed to be using meth, will not
seek treatment voluntarily.

Under the proposed law, case workers who believe a pregnant
woman is endangering the health of the fetus may petition a judge to call for an
enforced period of treatment.

Meth using women are at risk of involuntary commitment should
they fail to seek out treatment, and even if they do seek out treatment, if
they do not comply with all treatment requests or if that treatment is not working
to protect the health of the unborn child.
Sen. Gorman explained that in general she was against the intrusion of government
into the private lives of its citizenry, but said, "I do think that the
state has some very specific roles, and one of them is to protect people from
harm from other people."

She further explained that the bill was a necessary measure
given the extraordinarily addictive nature of meth, saying "I would
propose that a child can't wait for a year for backsliding off good intentions
to be released from being forced-fed methamphetamines by the mother."

The committee passed the bill, 4-3; with the three negative votes
coming from law-makers concerned that calling child abuse against the fetus a
crime, opened the door to eliminating abortion choice in the state.

Read this before you start your meth detox and find out: what to expect, whether you need an outpatient or residential detox (or whether you can do it on your own), how to stay safe and how to make it through protracted withdrawals. Read Article